Beekeeping in Pakistan – history, potential and current status

Pakistan is an important country located in South Asia and ranks the world's sixth most populous country. It has diverse landscapes with their own specific vegetation. The country specific vegetative diversity has a great ecological and economic impact on the conservation of local fauna. It has huge potential for sustainable beekeeping industry if properly exploited. Beekeeping in Pakistan is mainly focused in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central and north regions of Punjab provinces but nowadays it is growing rapidly across the country. Honey produced in Pakistan enjoys good repute in the Middle East due to its unique taste and quality. Pakistan exports around 4000 tons of the honey with the worth of about $ 23.00 million to Arab countries every year.


Introduction
Pakistan is an important country located in South Asia and ranks the world's sixth most populous country. It is situated transversely between 24° and 37° north latitudes and 61° and 75° east longitudes, spreading over an area of 87.98 million ha. It occupies a coastline of about 1,046 kilometers stretching along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Pakistan has international borders with Afghanistan, India, China, and Iran to the west, east, in the far northeast, and to the southwest respectively. In the northwest, Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor separates Pakistan narrowly from Tajikistan. It also has a maritime border with Oman. Pakistan has a diverse landscape characterized by the high mountain ranges, picturesque valleys, the desolate plateaus, the Indus basin, the sandy deserts, the beautiful sandy beaches, the blue pools, and the mangrove forests along the Arabian sea, each landscape characterized by its own specific vegetation.

Topography and landscape of Pakistan
Pakistan has glamorous mountains in the northern areas and with western borders. Three highest mountain ranges i.e. the Himalayas, the Karakorum, and the Hindukush meet together in the north and attract many mountaineer adventurers around the globe. K-2 (8611 m) is the second highest peak (next to Mount Everest) and belongs to the Karakorum range that has some of the highest peaks in the world. Nanga Parbat (8126 m) ranks the second highest mountain in the Himalayas. This mountainous area occupies largest concentration (>121) of peaks in the world and also blessed with few longest glaciers outside the Arctic region. Some smaller mountain ranges (the Suleiman range, the Salt range, the Koh Safaid range, the Toba Kakar range, the Kirthar range, and the Makran coast range) lies along the west. In addition to the mountains, the country has two important and beautiful plateaus, the Balochistan plateau and the Potwar plateau. It also has some intermountain pictorial valleys like Swat, Chitral, Peshawar, and Bannu valleys.

Climatic conditions of Pakistan
The climate of the country is as diverse as its landscape. Annual precipitation varies from 50 mm in western areas of the Balochistan province uplands to almost 1,500 mm in the Himalayan areas. Many parts of the Balochistan, a large area of the Punjab province (south of Sahiwal city), and the Sindh province receive an annual rainfall of less than 200. The annual rainfall progressively rises from the north of Sahiwal and the true humid conditions prevail over the plain areas when annual precipitation of 1,000 mm and on the highlands when annual rainfall accedes from 700 mm. The Monsoon and the Western Depression are the two important sources of rainfall in Pakistan. The monsoon rainfalls enter from the east and usually start from July to September each year. As the monsoon (Kharif season) enters from the east, therefore eastern parts of the country receive maximum rainfall. After transient over Iran and Afghanistan and losing most of the moisture on the way, the western depression arrives in Pakistan from the west and bring a little amount of rainfall to the western parts of the country during December to March (Rabi season). The topography of Pakistan has diverse climates, most of the areas receive adequate rainfall in Kharif and Rabi seasons which boost the vegetative growth and enhance the flowering of numerous plant species which are rich sources of nectar and pollen for bees.

Some land uses of Pakistan
Land uses for forest cover (scrub, riverain, mangroves, and plantation), agricultural land (irrigated, rainfed, and rodkohi), rangelands, deserts, and snow/glacier are shown in table 1 which are about 5%, 20%, 27%, 10%, and 2% respectively of total area of the country. Most of the beekeeping practices in Pakistan are focused in KPK and central and north regions of Punjab but nowadays it is growing rapidly. Beekeeping in Pakistan is not exploiting the full potential of bee forage plants found in forest cover, agriculture land including linear plantations, and rangelands. The bee flora present in the country can support up to 3.5 million bee colonies (Khan et al. 2014).

Figure 6: A stunning view of honey bee farm in Pakistan (Image courtesy Ahsan Khalil via https://www.pinterest.com/pin/300544975105555141/)
A. mellifera colonies were introduced to subcontinent by Sir Louis Dane during 1908, but these colonies soon died due to excessive rains and lack of expertise. During that time, a Punjab The frontier beekeeper's association (1954) and All Pakistan beekeeper's association (1956) were established with their headquarters in Peshawar and Faisalabad respectively but they didn't operate well. During 1977-79, A. mellifera colonies imported from Australia (as packaged bees) were further acclimatized at the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad.
These colonies initially suffered through many colony losses and were changed by splitting and dorsata. However, there is less information about its biology and it appears to be unable to survive without the presence of brood since it is poorly adapted to a phoretic lifestyle. It is believed to have a second unknown non-honeybee host on which it survives during the period when A. dorsata is migrating. However, it has been able to successfully exploit A. mellifera as a new host where it is believed to have caused up to 50% of colony losses in India, and decimated colonies in Afghanistan, causing an estimated 95% of colony losses in just three years.
Therefore, it is a serious pest and beekeepers need to control mite numbers by using acaricides or creating brood less periods. To add to their problems Varroa destructor was reported in 2002 and typically was already widely spread throughout their A. mellifera colonies. The presence of these two ectoparasitic mites is estimated to have reduced honey production by up to 50% as beekeepers learn how to manage them. Currently, beekeepers use flumethrin and fluvalinate strips imported from China and it is unclear if resistance has yet appeared. Formic acid is also used and trials using oxalic acid at National Apicultural Research Center (NARC) have confirmed that under local conditions it is effective and this will be phased in over the coming years. In addition to the mite problems, the other problems faced by beekeepers are those familiar to most beekeepers such as American Foulbrood (AFB), chalkbrood and pesticides used by farmers that have increased almost ten-fold during the last ten years.
Despite these difficulties, the future of beekeeping in the country looks bright. Pakistan is producing high quality honey of different flora that includes citrus (Citrus spp.), acacia (Acacia   Ziziphus honey also is known as the jujube, is a dark non-granulating honey with a strong flavor and aroma. This type of honey is highly demanded locally and by the Arab export markets. In addition to the Ziziphus crop in the autumn, beekeepers take another 2-3 honey crops yearly.
This can be from the flowers of oil-seed rape and citrus trees in the spring, followed by acacia and clover crops in the summer. NARC has established a honey-testing and quality laboratory to promote the value of bee products. It will assist the beekeepers to develop their export market by addressing issues like potential antibiotic and pesticide residues. The research institutes are regularly organizing the beekeeping training courses for people to adopt beekeeping as a cottage industry. Many workshops are organized to provide the latest information and research findings in the field of Apiculture. Queen rearing programs have been established at research institutions where handson training is provided. In Punjab, apiculture is being offered for master students which is proving popular with the students. A. cerana beekeeping is again being encouraged in the mountainous regions where it is better adapted than A. mellifera and does not suffer from mite problems. Pakistan is a place where beekeeping has real potential to expand to exploit the wide range of climatic conditions and different flowing seasons the country has to offer. Beekeeping and honey production is becoming a profitable business in Pakistan and it deals with eco-friendly practices. The non-framing business activities related to apiculture have a wide perspective to Khalid Ali Khan has a PhD in Entomology/Apiculture from King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2010 he joined as a research scientist at Beekeeping Research Station, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Dr. Khan has continued his interest in the field of Apiculture. He secured a position of an Assistant Professor in 2018 at King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. He is involved in the experiments including structural and functional variability of gut microbial communities associated with honey bees, bee health, molecular aspects of bee pathogens, and pollination ecology of Apis and non-Apis bees. His research interests also include the physico-chemical characterization of honey, propolis, and other bee product. He has published more than 70 research articles in international peer reviewed journals.